BEIJING,
Feb. 2 -- A group of children were performing in a shabby classroom in a
village in central Henan
Province, singing and dancing, while the audience were clapping to encourage
them to do a better job.
It seems nothing special for Chinese who are enjoying the traditional Lunar
New Year, or the Spring
Festival. But what's special is that all the children are victims of AIDS,
and the audience are volunteers from the Beijing Orchid Communication Center, a
well-known charity body that takes care this kind of poor kids.
So far, the center has taken care of more than 500 such children, with
financial support from domestic and foreign donors, said Li Dan, head of the
non-government body.
"These children need encouragement and you must stand behind them," said Wu
Wei, a staff of the center,"Be proud of the way they are looking at you. Never
give them up."
Like the center, many Chinese charity organizations take the Spring Festival
a best opportunity to show their love and care fore the needy. Government-backed
semi-official charity groups are the mainstay.
In the Guangxi
Zhuang Autonomous Region, Huzhou City of Zhejiang
Province, and Guangzhou
City of Guangdong
Province, these charity bodies distributed food, clothing and other daily
necessities to poverty-stricken families, in different ways.
Nevertheless, according to observers, charitable undertakings are at an
initial stage in China, the largest developing country in the world, where
charity groups are in lack of funds and donors have called for adequate policy
support.
Under such circumstances, many of the organizations can only afford
charitable activities in festivals, rather than doing the job on a routine
basis.
Editor:Ivana
